Categories

Archives

Author: eblanken

I placed an order for this shirt tonight after my main man Billy requested a design a few weeks ago and I promptly obliged. It may have taken a bit longer than I wanted to get them ordered but whatever, we’ll have them in time for baseball season.

The design/text stems from the White Sox being spurned by former free agent Manny Machado and a then tweet by current Sox player Tim Anderson that read “You either ride with us or get run over.” Too good to pass up, yeah? Bilbo will be rocking this shirt this season at The Cell or whatever the hell they call the south side field these days.

Recently I was asked to help out with branding for a new YouTube channel. I was given some guidelines and after a few discussions I was told to have my way with it. We went through a couple rounds of ideas and then settled upon the logos above. The top graphic is the main logo and the bottom is an alternate. Simple, clean and effective. My kind of work.

I said that I was busy this past summer and one of the reasons was Jason (Kustom Persuasion) being invited to finish his build and race Snot Rocket at the Roadkill Nights 2018 street races in Pontiac, Michigan on August 11. I was a last-minute addition to the crew as a helping hand and photographer but I sure am glad I went along for the ride. Jason, Bernie and I rushed to finish the car on Friday (the day before the event) and it had all of the typical calamity that one would come to expect of us. The night before they were working hard and not getting too far with things. The next day I showed up and it was all hands on deck. Seriously, Jason was cutting up the hood and doing final adjustments just to get this pig onto the trailer. In typical dumb hillbilly fashion it started pouring rain during load up but Bernie and Jason soldiered on and made it work. We strapped it down, loaded up our things and hit the road. At last we were off to Pontiac to make our mark but not before covering the air cleaner with a taped-up grocery bag to protect it from the rain.

It’s been a while since we posted anything on here; mostly because we’ve been busy buying motorcycles, motorcycle parts and just doing general work and life. Jason and Bernie completed Snot Rocket just in time to compete in the street drags in Pontiac, Michigan. That was a super fun weekend and I just realized I never posted anything about it. I bought another Sportster at the end of summer, Nancy bought a sweet 1970s Honda and I got rid of the el Camino (about damn time). I also grabbed an iPad Pro w/ Pencil on sale at the end of January and I’ve been trying to get into some more illustration stuff by using Procreate. I dig that program a lot and it’s lit a fire under my creative juices. I’ll be posting some of that work soon.

I also created some branding for a new YouTube channel and since then I’ve been working on some extra bits and bobs for them. Posters, social media branding, apparel designs and whatnot. All good stuff. On the subject of work, I’ve also been looking for a new role lately. This current position is not tenable for the long-term and I need to get out of there before I get consumed by it. More updates on that later if anything ever develops.

Seriously, it’s been a busy half of a year and I can’t wait for more to come around once Spring hits. I’ll be getting the new bike painted and changed all around. Off with the stock H-D parts and on with some new hotness, just like the other bike I have. Keep your peepers open for some good stuff to come.

The time finally came when the Snot Rocket lost it’s propulsion system. I suppose it’s going to happen with any drag car; a thrown piston, a wreck or SOMETHING will cause a catastrophic failure and a new engine will be needed to get the vehicle down the road again. This time it was some bent push rods and an offset valve or two (I think). Regardless of the problems, the 350 V8 is toast and a big block Chevy engine is the new hotness.

I rode the motorcycle to Clyde two weeks ago with every intention of taking photos of Bernie and Jason while they worked at this new engine. Of course something comes up and I spent hours toiling away at my motorcycle and didn’t make it out to the shop. Well, last week I was at Kustom Persuasion working on my hunk-of-junk El Camino and I managed to snag some photos of the two mad scientists still hard at work on that big block. Bernie takes care of the big block Chevy engine that will be replacing the 350 and Jason was working on the interior of Snot Rocket while also tending to my needs when I needed the help. This El Camino is turning into it’s own saga but I don’t really want to get into that. Instead, just peep some photos of Bernie and J-Money. I can honestly say I miss taking photos at the shop. Every angle is a challenge and the lighting is always absolute shit. That means more time in post-production but it’s always worth it as their beautiful mugs are sure to light up your day. Check em out below!Continue reading

In the waning weeks of summer 2017 I managed to make it to the racetrack to watch Jason and Bernie send Snot Rocket down the track a couple times. Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, OH has “Test ‘n Tune” nights and we all just managed to squeeze in this last night of glory. Jason managed to lay down a personal best for the car and it didn’t blow up or fall apart. It was loud, fast and a completely good time. I’m looking forward to watching him fly down the track again this year.

I realized the other day that I never finished editing photos from the 2017 Autumn Cruise held in Upper Sandusky, OH on September 23. Honestly, it was hot as Hell and I just didn’t want to remember that day. Nancy and I rode there form Cleveland, got sunburnt, walked for maybe an hour or two and then bailed. We ate some food (it was tasty), stuck to the shadows and I shot 54 photos—many of those being alternate angles of shots I post here. It was a beautiful day for the show, just not the best day for the show. Overall too hot and sunny to be standing under a clear sky on concrete. Regardless, we showed up, saw some cool shit and here is the proof.